Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün feʿūlün

Degildir münferid seyrinde şāʿir
Velev yoḳdur yanında bir müşāvir
Bütün eṭrāfı pür ḥis ü meşāʿir
Ṭuyar sesler ki hep sevdāya dāʾir
Anıñla söyleşir ŝābitle sāʿir
Döker diller hemān şelāle söyler
Leb-i vādideki seyyāle söyler
Cibāle ʿaks iden her nāle söyler
Öten ḳuşlar nihāl-i lāle söyler
Bütün eşyā okur "tublā's-serāʾir"
Tebessüm, girye çeşminde lisāndır
Nigāhī kāʾināta tercümāndır
Beyānında güzellikler ʿiyāndır
Sükūtunda ne maʿnālar nihāndır
Aña bī-lafẓ-ı nuṭḳ eyler żamāʾir
Büyük bir cemʿdir bir ferd-i tenhā
Ne eṭrāfeş hemī āyed süḫanhā
İder ẕī-rūḥ u cāmid ḥālin anhā
Melīkü'l-ʿaḳl ḳad yeʾmür ve yenhā
Velākin mā irādallāh-ı ṣāʾir
Ḳametde şiʿr ü ḥikmet leb bilipdir
Çiçekler anda gülçīn-i edebdir
Güzellik, şiʿr ü ḥikmet yeknesebdir
Ṣafā-yı ṭayʿ-ı şāʿir ümm ü ebdir
Ṭoġar aḥrārdan elbet ḥarāʾir
Görür bir ḳuş olur hemcins anıñla
Çiçekle söyleşirken gülde diñler
Ezelden āşinādır gülşeniñle
Bulunsa lāl olur ancaḳ seniñle
İder ḥüsnüñ anı mebhūt u ḥāʾir

In English

1. The poet is not alone in his wandering, even if there is no counsellor beside him; all around him is full of feeling and sense; he hears voices that all speak of love; the fixed stars and the planets converse with him.

2. Tongues pour forth at once, the waterfall speaks; the stream at the valley's lip speaks; every lament echoing from the mountains speaks; the singing birds, the tulip sapling speak; all things recite "the day when secrets are laid bare".

3. Smile and tear are a language in his eye; his glance is an interpreter to the universe; in his speech beauties are manifest; in his silence what meanings are hidden; the secrets of hearts speak to him without words.

4. One solitary man is a great assembly; (Persian) what words come to him from all around; he tells the state of the living and the lifeless; (Arabic) "The king of reason may command and forbid, but what God wills comes to pass."

5. Poetry and wisdom are lip to lip in him (the line is not entirely clear); flowers there are rose-gatherers of good manners; beauty, poetry and wisdom are of one lineage; the serenity of the poet's nature is their mother and father; from the free are surely born the free (and things as fine as silk).

6. He sees a bird and becomes its kind; while conversing with the flower he listens in the rose; he has known your rose garden from eternity; only when he finds himself with you is he struck dumb; your beauty leaves him astonished and bewildered.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The poet wanders alone but is not alone: in the portrait drawn by the muhammes "Şâir", the poet, everything around him is full of feeling, and the stars and planets converse with him. Of all the divan says about poetry, this is the most romantic. In the second stanza the waterfall, the valley stream, the echo of the mountains, the birds and the tulip sapling each turn into a speaking tongue; all things recite the verse of the sura al-Târiq, "the day when secrets are laid bare" (86:9). The thesis's spelling "table's-serâir" has been corrected according to this verse.

The third and fourth stanzas describe the poet's two-sided language: his glance becomes an interpreter to the universe, and the secrets of hearts speak to him without words; though one solitary man, he is a great assembly. The fourth stanza brings together Turkish, Persian and Arabic lines, and the Arabic line sets a limit on the sovereignty of reason: reason commands and forbids, but what comes to pass is what God wills. The word "harâir" in the fifth stanza means both free women and silks; the birth of the free from the free is used in the sense that the poet's nature gives birth to beauty, poetry and wisdom from one lineage. The last stanza ends with an unexpected confession of love: the poet who can converse with everything is struck dumb only beside the beloved.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 52-53 (poem no. 208; manuscript fol. 56b-57a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources